When I started working in bioinformatics I was excited to use Lisp for my work. I wrote a considerable amount of library code and programs at first. But I always found resistance when it came to other people using my programs and even more if the program was to be published and released for general use.

There is a large amount of really, really bad Perl code still in use in biology. Trust me when I say to those outside of the field, I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. I try to discourage Perl use between it makes it so easy for biologists to write terrible code.

I've found a compromise in Python. People will happily use it because it's trendy and ubiquitous. And I think it makes it easier to write OK code. But I miss using Lisp. The style of programming when you have a REPL is perfect for this kind of thing. The ability to quickly write prototypes which can later be improved is an advantage which cannot be stressed enough. C is fantastic when you have a good idea of the algorithms and data structures you want to implement and are concerned with implementing them efficiently. But that's rarely the case when writing bioinformatics code. I need to know if the damn thing works first before I spend time making it work fast. And why would you not use a language where both things are equally easy?

I'm happy to see this paper because it means that I have a way to justify my usage of Lisp in the future. Big thanks to the authors.